Liposome-based diagnostic and therapeutic applications for pancreatic cancer

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is one of the harshest and most challenging cancers to treat, often labeled as incurable. Chemotherapy continues to be the most popular treatment yet yields a very poor prognosis. The main barriers such as inefficient drug penetration and drug resistance, have led to the development of drug car- rier systems. The benefits, ease of fabrication and modification of liposomes render them as ideal future drug delivery systems. This review delves into the versatility of liposomes to achieve various mechanisms of treatment for pancreatic cancer. Not only are there benefits of loading chemotherapy drugs and target- ing agents onto liposomes, as well as mRNA combined therapy, but liposomes have also been exploited for immunotherapy and can be programmed to respond to photothermal therapy. Multifunctional lipo- somal formulations have demonstrated significant pre-clinical success. Functionalising drug-encapsulated liposomes has resulted in triggered drug release, specific targeting, and remodeling of the tumor envi- ronment. Suppressing tumor progression has been achieved, due to their ability to more efficiently and precisely deliver chemotherapy. Currently, no multifunctional surface-modified liposomes are clinically approved for pancreatic cancer thus we aim to shed light on the trials and tribulations and progress so far, with the hope for liposomal therapy in the future and improved patient outcomes.